Rooftops yoga in Asheville
Sky above, city below.
Rooftop classes take place on top of a building: a roof terrace, a parking deck turned garden, or a studio with access to the roof. You practice with open sky above and the city spread out below. Most happen in the warmer months.
No classes scheduled in the next two weeks.
What Rooftops does for you
You get sky: a wide horizon in a city where most views end at a courtyard wall. Sunrise and sunset light washes over the whole class. Height and moving air make even a familiar sequence feel new. Many people come for the view and stay for the sense of space.
It suits you if
- you want a view while you practice
- you like early mornings or sunsets
- you enjoy being outside with the city all around you
- small courtyards make you feel closed in
Read the full guide to RooftopsWhat a class is like, your first time, history and the words you will hear
What a class is like
Rooftop classes run mostly from May to September, early in the morning or in the evening to avoid the midday heat. Surfaces vary: wooden decking, artificial turf or roofing, so a thicker mat helps. Wind is part of it, loose clothes flutter and light mats can lift. City sounds drift up from below: traffic, trams, a radio somewhere. Shade is often limited, and classes may move inside or be cancelled in rain or storms.
Your first time
- Bring a layer for the wind, and sunglasses for sunrise or sunset classes.
- Use a heavier or thicker mat if you have one, since light mats slide or lift in the wind.
- Arrive a few minutes early, because getting up to the roof takes time and spots facing the view fill first.
Good to know
- Rooftops get hot and bright with little shade, so bring sunscreen, water and a cap for daytime classes.
- Access is often by stairs only, sometimes several floors, so ask if that matters to you.
- Weather decides: check before you leave whether the class is on, moved inside or cancelled.
Where it comes from
Berlin's skyline is unusually even. The city's 1853 building ordinance set the eaves height in the inner city at 22 meters, and that rule still shapes it: block after block of buildings around six stories high, with few towers. From above, it reads as a wide field of roofs broken by church spires and the TV tower at Alexanderplatz.
The roof as a place to use, not just to keep the rain out, is a modern idea. In the 1920s, Le Corbusier made the roof garden one of his Five Points of Architecture, arguing that a flat roof could give back the green space a building takes up. Most of Berlin's older roofs are pitched, but flat roofs on postwar buildings, department stores and parking garages later gave that idea somewhere to land.
Over the past two decades, Berlin discovered those flat roofs: parking decks turned into bars and gardens, roof terraces on hotels and offices, community gardens on top of shopping centers. Classes followed, mostly as seasonal summer offers, timed for sunrise or the long June evenings.
Words you will hear
- Traufhöhe
- Eaves height; in central Berlin traditionally 22 meters, which keeps the roofline even.
- Dachterrasse
- German for roof terrace.
- Surya namaskar
- Sanskrit for salute to the sun, a flowing sequence that often opens morning classes.
- Drishti
- Sanskrit for gaze; a steady point to look at, useful when the horizon pulls your eyes around.